Put Sally in charge of Super League

This article first appeared in Martyn Sadler’s ‘Talking Rugby League’ column in this week’s edition of Rugby League Express

On Monday 31 March the RFL will reveal to the media the results of their review of the World Cup, which was masterminded by the World Cup general manager Sally Bolton.

Sally will present the documentation, and I’m sure it will be very interesting and positive.

But the question is, what does she do after that?

The obvious thing would have been to put her in charge of the 2017 World Cup, which will be played in Australia and New Zealand.

Unfortunately it seems that her name was put forward for such a role, only to be rejected by the Australians. I find that almost unbelievable, and it seems to be a sign of the arrogant attitude the Australians have towards anyone involved in Rugby League in this country.

So what will she do when the papers relating to last year’s tournament are all filed away? She is bound to find herself being approached by other sports that will be keen to take advantage of her experience. But it would be extremely disappointing to see her lost to Rugby League.

Fortunately there is a very obvious role the RFL could offer her.

I don’t like telling the RFL what it ought to do (and if you believe that, you’ll believe anything). But surely Super League is crying out for a chief executive to play a hands-on role in running the competition and taking it forward. And I can’t think of a person more qualified for that role than Sally.

She is organised, intelligent, eloquent and driven, as we saw when she was interviewed on Sky Sports Super League Superstars programme last week. She was an impressive guest. That would be a very smart move indeed by the RFL.